


Passage of Time

by undercover_chicken



Series: DC Earth is Space Australia [4]
Category: Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (Cartoon), Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Random Words As Prompts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 18:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20587154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undercover_chicken/pseuds/undercover_chicken
Summary: Just a look through the years as to how two Thanagarians ended up on Earth and started a family there. Ties into my other story "Break Down the Door," short chapters that relate to each other but are not in chronological order.





	1. Worldbuilding Notes

Trying something new because I want to write but the longer stuff I'm hitting writers block on, and hopefully some shorter stuff can help me kickstart it while also putting out at least something. This first chapter is basically an info dump so hopefully no one gets confused and to make sure I keep my worldbuilding in order and my sanity intact. Chapters are not in chronological order.

This work is part of the Space Australia AU series, where Harvey Birdman is a Thanagarian and adopts Billy Batson. I'm going to focus this on Harvey's parents, Katar Hol and Kendara Thaal. Some notes (will add to this later):

-Katar Hol and Carter Hall are NOT the same person. 

-Kendara Thaal is a character very, very loosely based on Earth-1 Shayera Thaal. She is Hawkwoman, and Shayera Hol is Hawkgirl. Kendara and Katar have been on Earth much, much longer than Shayera (since the 1930s).

-Shayera and Katar are related, but distantly (think cousins but like twelve times removed). They know of each other but have maybe met like once in their lives when they were very young kids.

-A lot of my inspiration for them and their relationship came from work done by WibbetGuy on Deviantart, especially [this comic](https://www.deviantart.com/wibbitguy/art/My-Hawkman-Origin-In-TWO-PAGES--361030083).

-Thanagarian society is divided into castes, and is heavily militarized. Weaker Thanagarians, especially those of lower castes, are seen as a drag on society and are not worthy of survival. Higher castes command the armies made up of lower castes. These higher caste commanders are known as "Wingmen." Thanagarians cannot move between castes, and marrying/relationships/friendships/socializing in general across castes is highly discouraged/frowned upon to the point where it is forbidden. Kendara is from one of the lowest castes and Katar is from a very high one, as well as Shayera and Hro Talak.

-Female Thanagarians are called formels and males are called tiercels. This is based on real hawks.

-Kendara and Katar came to Earth in the 1930s as part of a team led by Katar to capture a criminal, but it was actually a setup to dispose of Katar. He escaped with his life, but was stranded on Earth with a very angry and uncooperative Kendara, who hated his guts and was quite happy with the fact that she could tell him to take a hike when he tried to order her around for the first time in her life.

-Kendara and Katar had nothing to do with the Thanagarian invasion and actively fought against their people who were attacking the city. However, public opinion turned sharply against them and they eventually left Midway for Fawcett after basically being forced out of the city they had protected for over half a century.


	2. Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dawn rises over Thanagar.

The sun rises over the barren surface of the planet Thanagar, heralding a beginning to the hellish heat of the day. Thanagar is a desert scrub world, relentlessly baked by its sun. Only the toughest survive here, and the winged people of Thanagar pride themselves on their fierceness and resilience. A large group of them stand in perfect rows, facing forwards towards their commander as they work through drills with military precision. To fly in formation such as they do requires absolute and utter control and obedience to their commanders-any wrong move can result in collisions and even death on the hard ground below. The beginning of learning to fly in formation however, begins on the ground.

A young female in the formation briefly and dully registers the new dawn, and knows that soon the temperature will rise to almost unbearable levels. Yet they will continue to march. They drilled in the freezing cold of the night and will continue in the day; without drink, food, or sleep. Their commanders will push them to the breaking point and beyond it, flaying any one unfortunate enough to fall behind. If those that fall are unable to continue, they may be put out of their misery. Only the strong survive.

According to the strict caste system that defines their society, Kendara Thaal is nothing. Born in the lowest caste to a family with more than a dozen mouths to feed, she more often than not went hungry. A foot soldier, no better than cannon fodder, is her only option to escape the streets, which is a place no Thanagarian ever wants to end up. The weak and homeless regularly disappear off the streets, never to be seen again. Weakness is not tolerated in Thanagarian society. 

When she passed her fiftieth decade and entered adulthood, no tiercel attempted to court her, and she made no effort to appeal to any. With no prospects for a mate to provide for her and more mouths to feed, her ambivalent parents turned her out to fend for herself. Like many mateless formels, she ended up in the Academy, training for the Planetary Army as her only option. Kendara has no interest in young or raising them. Any tiercel that would even be remotely attractive to her is either far above her caste, or terrified of her. She does nothing to endear herself to them either, actively beating up any tiercel unfortunate enough to earn her ire. 

With no friends or family in her squadron and no attempts to forge any bonds with any others, she leads a lonely existence. The only purpose in her life is fighting, but even it is hollow as she knows that she will never advance in the army beyond cannon fodder due to her low caste. Nowhere to go, nothing to look forward to, a meaningless, repetitive existence. Stubborn pride keeps her going, but it will only take her so far and so long. Perhaps somewhere else, on another planet, another dawn breaks over somewhere better. But in the here and now, any symbolism the dawn might hail is empty.


	3. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arrival on Earth is marred by a betrayal.

It was supposed to be an easy mission capturing Byth Rok, an escaped convict of some notoriety but not someone that important. Hro Talak had graciously given up his position as leader of the group to Katar, with the sound reasoning that Katar could use the experience to boost his standing in competition for one of the coveted higher ranks in the Wingmen. He led a group with Hro’s right hand, Paran Drul, at his side. Katar had no reason to doubt her, as she is a capable second and excellent Wingman. The rest of the squad is made up of half a dozen of the regular foot soldiers, expendable grunts. Most all of them are well trained and obedient, save a last-minute addition. She is a somewhat attractive but intractable and argumentative formel. He has been told that it will not pain anyone if she does not come back from this mission alive.

They had arrived on the planet and things had seemed to go well. After cornering Rok in one of the native’s cities (and secretly, he felt a small twinge of regret for the damage and injuries the chase caused the lesser life forms), he approached the criminal to disarm and overpower him when a searing pain exploded in his back. Never in his life has Katar ever known absolute pain such as this, and dimly he realizes he must have been shot in the back by one of their energy weapons. With fading senses, he hears Drul calling into Talak and assuring him that Katar is indeed dead, and now there is no real competition to the tiercel becoming future leader of the Wingmen and, by proxy, the planet’s military forces. Katar had known that they had a rivalry but had always assumed it to be somewhat friendly. 

It had never occurred to him until he lay there bleeding out on the pavement on a foreign world as all the others left him there that Talak would go to such lengths to ensure his success.

But then again, what should he have expected coming from Talak? The tiercel is a model of his people’s ideals-utterly ruthless and willing to go to great lengths for power. Only the strongest survive, and it is obvious that Katar isn’t one of them.


End file.
